The present disclosure relates generally to apparatuses, systems, and methods for configuring devices in a control system using a controller interface. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to providing a centralized controller interface, system, and method for configuring devices in a lighting control system.
Modern lighting systems may include programmable or customizable components. Configuring these components may be performed by a manufacturer at time of manufacture of a component, or at a time of preparation, shipment, or delivery to customer when entire lighting systems or sections thereof are provided to the customer. Configuration may also be performed by an installer using a handheld programming device wired or wirelessly coupled to the component to be programmed.
The most common method for configuring lighting control devices such as switches and sensors connected to a centralized control system is to use an infrared (IR) remote. Using an IR remote adds significant cost and complexity to both the centralized controller and the devices. For example, current remote models, such as the WIR-3110 Handheld Infrared Setting Unit for the Douglas control system, may cost more than $50 to manufacture. The cost to produce the IR remote is high because it require a multi-line liquid crystal display (LCD) user interface (UI) to select settings and a sophisticated integrated circuit (IC) to communicate more than 20 different settings to the device for particular implementations. Furthermore, components necessary for a device to receive IR data from an IR remote may cost approximately $1.50, which could translate to additional costs of more than $1000 for a large scale system.